Wanted by Türkiye, FETÖ’s top figure seen in Sweden
Sabah newspaper managed to track down another member of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Sweden as the Nordic country continues to drag its feet in the extradition of terror suspects wanted by Türkiye. Harun Tokak, who is in the upper part of the terrorist group, was recently seen in Malmö.
Tokak is in the “red category” of the Interior Ministry’s most wanted list, a notoriety he shares with the group’s leader, Fetullah Gülen. Türkiye is offering $531,000 (TL 10 million) for people who help catch him and sought help from Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant for Tokak. Separately, it asked Sweden to extradite Tokak, whose exact whereabouts have been unknown. After the extradition request, Tokak, who lived in Stockholm, moved to Malmö, about 600 kilometers (372.82 miles) from the Swedish capital. Harun Tokak moved to his current address with his wife in March 2022 and rarely leaves home, except for shopping.
The 67-year-old serves on an “advisory council” for FETÖ, which is made up of people closest to Gülen and has long served as Israel’s “imam” for the terrorist group, a name given to high-ranking figures from the terrorist group who are in charge of other members and FETÖ operations in countries.
Tokak was a high-profile name in FETÖ as the chairman of an association closed due to its links to the terrorist group, after Türkiye labeled the group a national security threat, following its attempt to overthrow the government in 2013. Tokak moved to Jerusalem where he worked as the Middle East coordinator for a another association affiliated with FETÖ, while in reality he assumed the post of “imam”. When informed by other FETÖ members that Türkiye was preparing an arrest warrant for him, Tokak left Jerusalem in 2015 for Denmark.
Turkish courts have requested his arrest in the main hearing on FETÖ’s activities and ordered the seizure of his assets. The trial calls for severe prison terms for FETÖ members whom Tokak accused of trying to overthrow the constitutional order, which carries life in prison. Turkey has submitted an extradition request to Sweden for Tokak and six other members of the terrorist group, but Sweden rejected all suspect petitions.
He is among the potential successors to the 81-year-old Fethullah Gülen who is known to have health problems. He met Gülen in 1973 while the latter was working as a preacher in the western Turkish province of Balıkesir. For years, he worked as a teacher in Türkiye while secretly serving as a provincial “imam” for the terrorist group. In the 2000s, he headed an association linked to FETÖ, which was behind the terrorist group’s much-criticized “interreligious dialogue” project. His name came up in a plot against a prosecutor who had opened an investigation into Gülen accused of founding a terrorist group in 2002. Details of a sex tape allegedly involving prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel emerged in a Turkish newspaper and Tokak was accused of providing tape. The sex tape earned Yüksel a suspension while the lawsuit against Gülen was later dropped. The terrorist group is known for its widespread illegal wiretapping activities targeting prominent figures, from politicians to journalists. It is accused of eavesdropping on the telephone conversations of its targets through its law enforcement infiltrators, for the purpose of extortion.
Tokak’s residency in Israel came into question at a time when Turkey’s relations with the country were deteriorating and Turkish citizens visiting Jerusalem faced expulsions.
The indictment in his trial in Türkiye portrays Tokak as the man with key information about FETÖ’s covert activities and in direct contact with Gülen.
Tokak is the tenth key FETÖ figure Sabah has tracked in Germany and Sweden since last year as Ankara complains about European countries harboring terror suspects. Previously, Cevheri Güven, Ercan Karakoyun, Celal Fındık, Murat Çetiner and Mehmet Karabörk were found living in Germany while Bülent Keneş, Abdullah Bozkurt, Levent Kenez and Mustafa Kemal Şirin were seen in Sweden. They either serve for FETÖ propaganda against Türkiye or were involved in several FETÖ plots in Türkiye in recent years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously said that extradition of terrorists is a must for Sweden if it wants the right to join NATO. Erdoğan last month criticized the Nordic country and other European nations for continuing to tolerate the presence of terrorists. Turkey told Sweden that parliament cannot ratify Sweden’s NATO membership unless they hand over the terrorists they have, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, referring to Sweden and Finland’s commitment last June as part of an agreement to take a firmer stance against terrorism to join the alliance. . “First of all, they need to extradite almost 130 terrorists for their bid to pass our parliament, (but) unfortunately they have not yet fulfilled this,” Erdoğan declared, speaking at a youth rally in the southwestern Muğla province.
Referring to a joint press conference he held last November with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Erdoğan said he told Sweden to extradite fugitive suspect Bülent Keneş to Türkiye, stressing the importance of the issue. FETÖ was behind an attempted coup in 2016 that killed 251 people in Turkey. “Interestingly, their court rejected the extradition of Bülent Keneş to us,” Erdoğan noted, referring to the latest rejection of extradition requests.
